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Shantae (character)
Shantae is the main protagonist of the Shantae series. The half-genie guardian of Scuttle Town, Shantae works tirelessly to thwart the plans of the nefarious lady-pirate, Risky Boots, or other forces threatening the town. The character was created by Matt Bozon and Erin Bozon. General Information Shantae is a half-genie charged with protecting her home, Scuttle Town. A professional belly dancer, her outfit usually consists of sheer harem pantsand gold jewelry. Shantae has olive/tan-skinned with blue eyes, and long growing purple hair tied back in a ponytail stem stalk. Her parentage is uncertain, but it is known that her mother was a genie and there is speculation about who her father was. Throughout the series, Shantae has had the ability to transform into many different things. Depending on the adventure and circumstance, she also has worn many different outfits. Personality As the Guardian Genie of Scuttle town, Shantae lives in a lighthouse by the sea where she can spot incoming ships and trouble. During the events of the first game, she is portrayed at the beginning as young and somewhat naïve. In addition, her strong sense of justice drives her to help people in need. She chases Risky Boots across the map in order to stop her plans and has a strong enmity for the pirate as a result. Slightly shy, Shantae is initially afraid of the citizens of Scuttle Town discovering her status as a half-genie. In addition, she often puts herself down; believing that only being half-genie is not good enough. After being tricked by Risky near the end of the game and subsequently thwarting her plans, she overcomes her insecurity and shyness and comes to terms with these anxieties, and is happy that the townsfolk still accept her. Shantae has a deep care for her assumed uncle, Mimic, as well as her friends Sky and Bolo, and at the end of the first game gives up on the chance to enjoy eternal peace in the Genie Realm in order to be with them. She also considers the zombie Rottytops as her friend, although Rotty's own attitude towards her, while friendly for the most part, is more ambivalent, as she does not hesitate in claiming she would like to eat Shantae's brains (which Shantae seems to take as a joke). In Risky's Revenge, she's shown to have grown more confident, enough to believe that she's the only person able to stop Risky Boots and discarding Mimic's suggestion that Sky and Bolo should go instead. In the end of the game, Shantae is betrayed by Rottytops to Risky Boots in exchange for her brains (although Risky chooses to back down from the deal) and loses her genie powers, she is then shown to be much less self-assured, despite the fact that she manages to defeat the evil embodiment of her powers, Nega-Shantae. She is then comforted by her friends who tell her they will help her protect Scuttle Town. In The Pirate's Curse we see her forming an alliance with her nemesis Risky Boots despite not trusting her at all. Over the course of the game, however, she slowly forms a bit of an attachment to her, asking her if she could "join the good guys for once" and even going as far as saving her life later on. Squid Baron calls her a tomboy at some point. Shantae's more unusual habits are revealed during the game's progression; we learn that Shantae accidentally destroyed Sky's Library Card once by nibbling on it when she got nervous, and that she considers herself a bad role model due to her bad temper and fashion sense. Shantae also appears to have low self-esteem (possibly tied to the loss of her magic), as when she was threatened with losing her hair after getting dismissed as Guardian Genie, she says, "They can't take my hair, can they uncle? That's all I have left!". In Shantae: Half-Genie Hero she is tasked with protecting Scuttle Town from various threats like the Giga Mermaid, Techno Baron, Ammo Baron, the Hypno Baron etc. It is mentioned several times that she doesn't know who her parents are, only that her mother was a genie. Although she's willing to explore more her genie side hoping that it will bring her closer to her mother, as mentioned above she turns down at the end of the first game the genies' offer to stay in the Genie Realm, and at the end of Risky's Revenge is shown expressing sadness as being even farther from her half-genie nature and subsequently her mother after having lost her magic powers. It is strongly implied in the events of the game that the mysterious Warrior she meets inside the Village of Lost Souls is none other than the spirit of her father, who went into the land of the dead to search for his daughter and never returned. Neither Shantae nor the Warrior himself seem to realize the possible connection. Abilities Shantae's Half-genie nature gives her several magic abilities. * Hair Whip (aka Ponytail Whip) - Shantae's trademark and default move. Shantae can use her long purple ponytail hair as a weapon, cracking it like a whip by shaking her head. It was revealed in Shantae: Risky's Revengethat this skill is not a by-product of her genie half, as she is able to use this ability after her powers are removed. It's possible that this skill is a product of her own magic not tied to her genie side, or may have come from her father. * Magical Belly Dances - Shantae can use her ability to belly dance to cause various kinds of magical effects, most notably teleportation and transformation. Although her dancing style is certainly mostly fanciful, similarities have been noted with the Turkish Oryantal Dans style of belly dance. * Transformation - Shantae can transform into many forms such as a monkey, elephant, spider, harpy, mermaid, and Tinkerbat once she's learned the correct dance from a Guardian Genie, Magic Fountain or in the case of the Tinkerbat dance by buying the sequence from a man in Bandit Town. * Magic spells and magic items - Shantae can use various kinds of magic spells and items that are bought at shops. The magic properties of these items are apparently not tied to Shantae's genie powers, as she retains the ability to use them even after her powers are taken away in Risky's Revenge. * Fighter Moves - Having received training from Bolo and through upgrades in the shop, Shantae can perform various martial arts techniques such as Backdashes, Recoveries and several types of kick attacks (Power Kick, Drill Kick, Uppercut Kick) * Costumes - Shantae has different outfits she can wear that change her stats and abilities. Creation In 1994, as Matt Bozon was still engaged with his future wife Erin, she got a flash of inspiration while coming back from her camp counselor days, and created the character of Shantae, named after one of the campers. Later on, Matt Bozon asked her what she would come up with if she was to create a video game character. She disappeared, and when going after her after some time, he found her working on sketches of a character, Shantae, in dancing poses. Matt Bozon liked the idea and fleshed out the background and mythology surrounding the character. Matt Bozon has provided two contradictory versions of the creation of the Hair Whip. In the first one, he stated that at the time, Erin had very long hair and Matt would often take a blow in his face each time she turned around, which inspired him for Shantae's trademark attack. However, he later stated that Erin's first sketches of Shantae already featured the Hair Whip. Erin also came up with the idea that the character could use dances to conjure animals or charm them. A 1997 archived version of WayForward Technologies' site shows that it was indeed one of the original point of her magics. It was later refined as the transformation dances. The archived version of WayForward's site also depicts Shantae with a very different appearance, as a brunette with a less manga-ish appearance. She is described as a troubled genie, born without any magic power, although she was capable of hair whipping already. Her catchphrase, "Ret-2-Go", came from a friend of the Bozons who kept using it in the animation clean up team for the Warner Bros. movie The Iron Giant to break for lunch. The phrase then reached the Shantae team and ended up as Shantae's catchphrase. In Matt Bozon's vision, Shantae uses it because she thinks it's cool but her friends actually can't stand it (although other characters have used it in-universe). Game Appearances WarioWare D.I.Y. Shantae made her appearance in WarioWare D.I.Y in Shantae NAB! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Shantae made her appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a spirit. = Gallery Shantae_MUCA.jpg|Shantae's appearance in working mock-ups ca. 1997 ShantaeGB.png|Shantae Shantae_R'sR.png|Shantae: Risky's Revenge Shantae_PC.png|Shantae and the Pirate's Curse HGH shantae portrait.png|Shantae: Half Genie Hero 77DD5B96-D974-431A-9348-5C97C0BD929B.png|Shantae and the Seven Sirens Category:Shantae characters Category:Playable characters Category:Protagonists Category:Super Smash Bros. Spirits Category:Third party characters